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Allen Tate As Critic (1969)
Allen Tate As Critic (1969)
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The Southern Literary Journal
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138 THE SOUTHERN LITERARY JOURNAL
A Metaphysical Athletic:
Allen T?te as Critic
By George Core
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REVIEWS 139
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140 THE SOUTHERN LITERARY JOURNAL
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REVIEWS 141
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142 THE SOUTHERN LITERARY JOURNAL
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REVIEWS 143
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144 THE SOUTHERN LITERARY JOURNAL
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REVIEWS 145
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146 THE SOUTHERN LITERARY JOURNAL
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REVIEWS 147
for the mere point of view and the mere opinion are everything,
and the style, although it meets Tate's standard of being as
plain as the nose on one's face, is often poetic in its tone and
cadences, in the rightness of its language and nuance.
In his criticism Allen T?te over and again meets the ex
acting test of R. P. Blackmur: "To combine conceptual honesty
and the act of vision is the constant athletic feat of the artist. ...
The test of success is enduring interest; and there, in enduring
interest, lies the writer's whole authority and his sole moral
strength." In short, Mr. Tate's athletic ability as critic has only
improved as time has gone on, even though it must be said
that his finest criticism was written in the early Fifties. He con
tinues to walk over the yawning abyss of the modern world
along a tightrope which grows increasingly perilous and which,
unlike the road Bunyan's pilgrim travelled, seems to have no
end. Those who follow may be sure in their guide, but unfor
tunately they will find the way is more demanding than Tate's
apparently effortless performance indicates. Few will safely cross,
and many will be lost, even as I probably have been in the course
of my own acrobatics. (As E. B. White has said, "A writer, like an
acrobat, must occasionally try a stunt that is too much for him.")
But this in no way affects Allen Tate's certain progress as he
seeks a more civilized world.
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